Rachmaninov’s Vocalise was originally written for voice and orchestra as the final piece in his ‘Fourteen Songs’, Op. 34.
But because the piece has no text and can be sung to a vowel the singer chooses, it lent itself to instrumental arrangements.
The most famous of those arrangements are those for cello and the one for piano.
Written in a minor key, like so many of Rachmaninoff’s best pieces, Vocalise has a melancholy undertone that reflects the composer’s dark mood at this time, as Russia struggled through World War I and hovered on the brink of revolution.
Here is pianist Yuja Wang to play this wonderful music for you:
